Bluffton Hospital 
expanding, extending reach

BLUFFTON — A need to double its square footage surely is a good sign for Bluffton Hospital.

“This is a pretty good size project for Bluffton Hospital and the community,” said Bill Watkins, chief administrative officer. “It is kind of exciting.”

The hospital broke ground last year on a $12 million building and renovation project that is on target to be completed late this year or early 2012. The project adds 27,000 square foot of additional space and renovates another 6,000.

The renovations include pharmacy, supplies and other support areas within the hospital. The project includes new emergency room space and surgical space. The hospital has seen a 30 percent growth in the number of surgical cases and expects the growth to continue, Watkins said. The current space was built in 1988.

“We have just continued to see an increase in utilization,” Watkins said. “Both for our associates and our patients and physicians, we needed to make some changes to the hospital.”

The community also saw a need for the expansion, Watkins said. Fund-raising efforts brought in more than $1 million for the project.

“The whole emphasis for completing a project like this is to decide what needs are best met in a local setting,” he said.

The hospital currently employs 150 people. In the community for 102 years, the hospital expanded to Ottawa in 1998 with an outpatient center. The two facilities treated more than 38,000 people last year. Watkins stressed that patients come from around the region.

As it grows, the hospital also continues to be recognized for providing quality care. For the second consecutive year, it earned the Summit Award from Press Ganey, a national medical services survey organization. It was one of 36 health care facilities nationally to be recognized for its inpatient care.

The hospital offers a range of specialities, including cataract surgery, plastics and aesthetics, general surgery, orthopedics, and ear, nose and throat. The community appreciates having the services close by,” Watkins said. Things like easy parking and limited traffic also make the facility attractive.

“Those kinds of things that really make ease of access in a smaller community,” he said.

The hospital hopes to expand some of those specialties and be able to offer more on a regular basis. Additional medical space made available from the project will allow for more visiting medical specialists.

“That local access, we think is real important,” Watkins said.

Much of what the hospital provides doesn't happen inside its doors. Both employees and the hospital as a whole get involved in the community. The hospital does everything from collaborating with others to bring events to the community, to assisting the Bluffton University health center and teaching elementary pupils about the hazards of smoking.

“One of the big things is we are not just the hospital,” Watkins said. “We are involved in the community in a number of ways and we think that's what helps make us a corporate citizen.”